


(yet another) Something Human

by M4AS, space_matt



Category: Muse (Band)
Genre: Inspired by Music, M/M, Something Human, Time Travel, scifi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 05:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15381666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M4AS/pseuds/M4AS, https://archiveofourown.org/users/space_matt/pseuds/space_matt
Summary: Based on the music videos for Thought Contagion and Something Human.  Matt is trying to save his species from a deadly virus while looking for Love.  The Time Police are after him because he's breaking the Laws of Time.  Time Cop Dom has taken a particular interest in this case and Matt has taken a particular interest in Dom.





	(yet another) Something Human

He was an enigma.The past.The present.The future.Traveling through space and time.Alien.Not human.A rogue.A bandit who didn’t believe in following the laws of time.He could have anything he wanted at any time, at any place but there was one thing he sought.Something that could not be found but earned.Chased.Caught.Reciprocated. Something human. 

 

Love, they called it.

 

He hailed from the planet Aeties.Part of the Deloran star system.From the view point of Earth, it could be found in the constellation of Gemini.Aeties was not much different from Earth.Though the Deloran star was a red giant, coloring the world bisexually in deep hues of pinks and purples and blues in all tenses past, present and future. 

 

He went by Matt. And he had a mission.Well, two.

 

His first mission was to find love.His second mission was to save his species.He could time travel.But the future of Aeties had what _he_ considered a finite end — long before the planet itself was swallowed by Deloran.There was a virus.And it was spreading rapidly through the densely populated cities of the planet. It was killing the people.It would kill the people.If he didn’t do something about it.

 

And he wasn’t supposed to, according to the Laws of Time.

 

But he was going to anyway.

 

And they were after him.He knew.He’d seen them.They were looking for him.The Time Police. 

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

Dom had been awake for two days already, and everything was beginning to run together. The faces, the hands he shook, the reports he filed. According to blubbering, hysterical eyewitnesses he'd interviewed, a dark haired woman had fought off an entire squad of Time Police, leaving several mangled bodies in her wake. Dom had been unlucky enough to be the first on the scene, and had seen things he knew he'd never forget. Perhaps most frightening of all had been the way that one of the bodies had jerked and spasmed on the ground at Dom's feet, as if it was being electrocuted. And the eyes... glowing and unearthly, like something out of a nightmare--

 

"You should get some rest, Officer," Dom's Sergeant said, offering him a pat on the back. "You've done excellent work here, and we'll need you tomorrow."

 

Dom nodded, in no position to argue. He knew he needed to sleep, otherwise he would be a mess tomorrow when they began their search in earnest for this infamous Time Police killer. He turned and stumbled back to his car, his mind already on getting home to his tiny apartment and crashing on his bed. He hadn't been home in four nights, having to catch sleep here and there in his patrol car even before all of this mess happened. He opened his car door and was about to slide in when a voice cut through the air.

 

"Officer! Officer, wait, we have to tell you something!"

 

Turning back, Dom spotted a pair of nearly identical teenagers running toward him. Because of his training, Dom made a quick mental assessment of them. Their gender presentation was unidentifiable, and their age uncertain, but they appeared young. Both wore their hair in extreme mohawks, one green and one pink, and wore an assortment of black leather items. They halted just in front of Dom, towering over him thanks to their platform shoes.

 

"Has anyone told you about the car?" one asked, and the other spoke immediately after, in the exact same pitch and tone. "The red car, the man in the red car."

 

Dom shook his head. "I don't know anything about a man in a red car."

 

They both spoke at once, the pink mohawk just a little before the green. "He had something to do with it. He's the one you should be looking for, I reckon. He's brought this here..." Both of them turned their heads in unison to cast a long stare at the white chalk outlines where the bodies had been, and then looked back at Dom. He felt uneasy under their gaze. "Find the man in the red car, and you'll find the disease."

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

He traveled from planet to planet, time period to time period, seeking the antivirus, the cure, to the disease that had infected his planet.Or would infect his planet, depending on what time period he was hanging out in on that day. 

 

He’d already tried it all on his planet.Going back in time, trying to stop the virus before it started.That had proven futile, however.No matter what he seemed to do in the past, the virus still took hold in the future, wiping out the population of his planet.And the only reason he survived was because he could travel away. 

 

He’d taken his precautions.Maybe he couldn’t save his people.He could at least take uninfected ones away to another planet to live their lives out safely.Hopefully repopulate.So he did.He took groups to other planets.But that wasn’t enough.He couldn’t save everyone.But he had to try.Maybe the cure wasn’t on his planet.Maybe it was somewhere else. 

 

And that’s when he’d found Earth.He was obsessed with Earth.What a weird little world with weird little people.They had this thing called Love.There wasn’t anything like it on Aeties.Partners, mating for life.The idea of souls.Of soulmates.On Aeties it was only about the duty of continuing the species.Each life had a purpose predesignated before they were born.It was all very meticulous and drone-like.Even leisure time was scheduled and assigned.But leisure time did include time traveling.

 

When time travel had been invented, it’s primary use was to visit.That had been strict from the very get go.Time Laws had been written before Time Travel had been created, just in case.Travel to visit.To experience.Never to change.It was a simple case of butterflies and hurricanes.The mere flap of a gentle butterflies wings, could be the shift in air that could eventually cause a devastating hurricane months down the line elsewhere on the planet.Therefore, it was of utmost importance when time traveling, to leave a place exactly as it was when you arrived, to prevent devastating changes to the future of whatever planet you happened to be visiting.

 

Leisure time did include time traveling.And one particular Aetian found time travel far more interesting than the drone work he’d been assigned.Leisure time might be scheduled.But with a time traveling machine, leisure time could be stretched for as long and as short as he wanted it to go.Time traveling could show him the devastating future of his own planet.Time traveling could show him the beauty of other worlds.Time traveling could show him Earth.And Love.Time traveling gave him freedom. As long as he could get ahold of an unmonitored time machine.That was the tough part.

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

Nights of fitful sleep and troubled dreams left Dom less than refreshed when he returned to work and was given his official assignment. The Sergeant had gathered information on the mysterious man in the red car. A briefing revealed that they had a law-breaking time traveler on their hands, which meant that Dom would finally be assigned to a case in his field.

 

Time traveling was very much legal, as every Time Travel Agent cheerfully chirped on their incessant adverts. It was changing things that was illegal, and many tourists were careless in their travels. On top of his police training, Dom had spent almost four years studying the intricacies of time travel and the butterfly effect, watching presentations by experts and listening to warnings by scientists. Despite the immense money-making aspect of time travel, it was potentially dangerous... very, very dangerous. Far too dangerous to be in the hands of tourists, in Dom's opinion, or anyone but a dedicated Time scientist. It was for this exact reason that he had chosen the Time Police as his career path. He believed himself to be protecting the very fabrics of the universe, and reminded himself of that every time he was stuck doing some less than interesting assignment.

 

But this man in the red car? This was a fascinating case, and Dom very much wanted to get his hands on this careless individual who had allegedly brought a glowing, shuddering, foaming terror upon Earth and its people.

 

"We're giving you a partner for this assignment, Officer Howard," the Sergeant said. "Wolstenholme hasn't officially been on our team for a few years, since before your time, actually. But he's been specially trained with a number of weapons that you'll need to catch this bastard."

 

Dom wasn't sure how he felt about being handed a partner, but he nodded. "Use my tracker and have Wolstenholme meet me on the Exogenesis Highway at dawn. No way our suspect won't want to take a joyride there once in a while..."

 

~*~*~*~*~*~

 

Earth had something else that Aeties didn’t have.Earth had a moon.That moon had a powerful effect on the Earth and on Matt.The first time he visited Earth, he felt it.The pull of the moon.He felt it in his veins.He felt it move around the Earth.The duel gravitational effect so very different from his own planet, where his blood and the tides pulled only toward Deloran.A sort of liquid worship to the king of the sky.Earth there was parted devotion.Earth also had a queen.And that affected so much.

 

Other planets had moons.Of course they did.But Matt was partial to Earth because Earth had a moon _and_ love _and_ a rich history.Earth had multiple mass extinctions.Aeties only had one.His own.Earth had dinosaurs.Huge feathered beings and giant lizards.Earth had wars.Aeties never had wars.Aetians didn’t have egos to create wars.Earth had tides.Matt wondered if the moon was powerful enough to create tides, than certainly it had the power to pull souls together too. Matt was convinced that Earth, with all it’s rich history and it’s moon, _must_ have the cure to what ailed his planet.Maybe the cure was love. 

 

Time travel required great speed. It required a vehicle.A fast vehicle.Like a car.A red Lamborghini, to be exact.The Aetian time travel device wasn’t the car itself.But was worn by the time traveller, like a watch.It was then up to the traveller to find a way to get the speed they required to travel.Earth had an affinity for fancy fun cars.And so did Matt. Matt had an affinity to anything Earth had an affinity for. 

 

Earth had long straight stretches of road that allowed red Lamborghinis to gather a lot of speed.Exogenesis highway was the longest and the straightest and was Matt’s favorite.He could drive the road forever and see the history of the Earth.Like watching a favorite movie, over and over.He knew the time police liked to hang out there.It was a popular destination.But he rather liked the idea of a little chase.That was exciting. And what was one more trip on the highway when he had a time travel machine?He had all the time in the universe to solve his problems. 

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

Dom was relieved that his new partner didn't keep him waiting. Wolstenholme arrived just before the first rays of dawn broke across the horizon, lugging with him a collection of weapons from the trunk of his own vehicle. Dom shook hands with the taller man, sizing him up. With his black cowboy hat and sunglasses, Wolstenholme looked more like an old fashioned bounty hunter than a member of the Time Police, and Dom wasn't quite sure what to make of him.

 

Luckily for Dom, though, Wolstenholme didn't seem to be interested in making unnecessary small talk, so they sipped coffee together in Dom's squad car in silence. When they did speak, it was only in an effort to confirm details of their assignment.

 

"We don't know what assigned time our target originates from," Dom said at one point, draining the last of his coffee. He leaned back in his seat, unsatisfied by sitting without moving. He was itching to do something, to begin the chase. His partner seemed unbothered by waiting, though, at ease as he peered into the distance. "Once we apprehend him, we'll bring him in for questioning."

 

Easing the car out onto the Exogenesis Highway, Dom began their patrol. Dawn had brought with it a few cars, most of them giddy time traveling tourists, but also the occasional burnt out professional who bought precious extra work hours by playing with time. Dom studied each of them as they drove past, but none of them matched the description of the infamous man in the red car.

 

From what Dom had been told, their target was a dark-haired man with pale skin and an ostentatious taste in outerwear. Appeared to be in his 30s, slight of build... and most definitely not the harried woman downing coffee as she drove by Dom's squad car, probably on her way to her third or fourth job.

 

"How do you know he'll be out here?" Wolstenholme asked, the first time he'd spoken for quite some time. Dom didn't turn his head, choosing instead to keep his eyes on the road as he answered.

 

"Because he's traveling in a Lamborghini." Dom smiled to himself, tightening his hold on the steering wheel. "And this is the best place in all the universe to drive a car like that..."

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

He passed the squad car easily going over 100 miles per hour.He knew he’d get a chase.He smirked.He wasn’t afraid of them.They couldn’t catch him.They hadn’t yet, and as far as he was concerned they never would.No squad car could keep up with his Lamborghini if they tried.In his rearview mirror he could see the squad car ease onto the road.The stretch of clear road ahead of him mirrored in his reflective Ray-Bans. 

 

It was a beautiful day for a leisurely car chase.Sunny, warm and dry.The scenery boasted cacti and shrub brush before switching to Paleozoic trees, as ancient and thunderous as the dinosaurs he knew he’d be soon seeing. 

 

He shifted gears, becoming one with the car as he felt it’s smooth transition into a lower gear where he could accelerate even faster.The engine revved as the car touched 120.He zoomed from the Devonian into the Carboniferous eras in the blink of an eye. Around him, he couldn’t see it, but Exogenesis highway now stretched across the entirety of Pangea.But he supposed that bit of information didn’t much interest the Time Police behind him.Carboniferous turned into Permian turned to Triassic where Plateosaurus dotted the landscape.

 

He glanced in the rearview mirror again.The squad car was approaching despite his speed.He could go faster.But he didn’t.Not yet. 

 

~*~*~*~*~

 

Just as a mixture of impatience and exhaustion threatened to overtake Dom, their target finally appeared. Sure enough, he was driving a red Lambo, the sort of car that Dom dreamed about getting to drive. Giving chase to their criminal was easy enough... catching him, not so much.

 

Dom paid little attention to his new partner as they zipped along in pursuit, and barely took in the muttered comments offered up.

 

"He's really going to make us chase him through prehistoric times?" Wolstenholme grumbled. "I've had my fair share of run ins with the beasts in those times, and they're not pretty."

 

Dom pressed his foot harder on the pedal, eyes fixed on their target. The colorful worlds they passed were nothing more than background noise to him, now that they were on the chase. He gripped the wheel tighter than ever, as if it would speed them along faster, and smiled to himself as they gained on the red Lambo.

 

"Prepare to freeze him," Dom said, adrenaline pumping through his veins from the excitement. Not bad for a first mission, was it? He'd haul the criminal in, and everyone would see that he should be given more assignments like this...

 

But the Lambo swerved to the side and threw itself into an impossible U turn, blasting right by Dom's car before he could fully compute what had even happened.

 

"Shit!" Dom slowed down, making a far less elegant U Turn, and sped after the Lambo.

 

This time they were caught up in visions of Earth's industrial revolution, distant cities rising up like weeds, spiraling pollution into the air with them. Dom ground his teeth together, pushing his squad car to its very limits for speed, but still barely gaining on the red car.

 

"We might need a faster car," Wolstenholme said, but Dom didn't respond. Like hell they did. He knew how to handle his squad car, and he would not let this man get away from them.

 

He let go of the wheel with one hand, only long enough to access the magnification feature on his mirrored aviators. He focused on the red Lambo's driver's side mirror, wanting to get a better look at this reckless bastard. It only took a few seconds before he was rewarded with a quick glimpse. At any other time, Dom might have classified him as handsome, even the sort that he'd ask out for a drink. He'd always had a weakness for a sexy man in a sexy car, but he sharply reminded himself that this was their target. This was a potentially very dangerous criminal--

 

Oh shit. Did he somehow know Dom had been inadvertently checking him out?


End file.
